Monday, November 08, 2010

PhRMA Intern's Secret identity Revealed!

Way back in 2006 I reported what I thought was a violation of PhRMA's DTC Advertising Guidelines to its Office of Accountability. I received a response TWO months later from a certain "Emily M. Johnson." It was such an unprofessional communication that I complained about it my Pharma Marketing listserv. A reader thought Emily was a "lowly, hassled intern" and she should not be blamed for the poor response. That was enough for me to invent "PhRMA Intern" (see "Adventures of PhRMA Intern!", a CLASSIC Pharma Marketing Blog post).

I imagined that PhRMA Intern was a recent graduate of an Ivy League school and might even be related to Ken Johnson, PhRMA VP of Communications.

I thought that I would never learn the TRUE identity of PhRMA Intern. Just now, however, I received this anonymous comment to another blog post:

"You peaked my curiosity about Emily Johnson. According to LinkedIn, she graduated from college in 2001, grad school in 2003, and then immediately became Director of PhRMA (no joke):

"After 5 years at PhRMA, she became a Senior Associate at a PR firm. Quite a step down from Director of PhRMA."

Emily graduated Rutgers University in 2001 and received an MPP at Georgetown University in 2003. All during that time she was a "Director" at PhRMA. Wow, PhRMA is really liberal with its job titles! Imagine an intern still a freshman in college with the title "Director"! But why didn't she include this title in her letter to me?

About the Author

Pharmaguy™ (@pharmaguy) is a "constructive critic" of the pharmaceutical industry. He is not shy about giving his opinion, which is respected by many insiders who share some of his views but who are unable to voice them on their own.